In order to effectively address the need for physician scientists who are trained to conduct biomedical research, we propose an innovative, short-term research training program for pre-matriculating and matriculated medical students at LSUHSC-New Orleans. This Summer Internship Program (SIP) will support twelve students to work with researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) and is designed to cultivate their interest in research careers. We have identified over40 faculty mentors who are working in the areas of diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders. Students will conduct intensive hands-on clinical or basic science research for 10 weeks in the summer, working with PBRC faculty. Those students who participate for a second summer (pre-matriculated students) will act as peer mentors to incoming students, thus providing an important mentoring component to the program. The goals of this program include: 1) to provide medical students with research experiences; 2) to provide students with strong career and research mentoring; 3) to increase the participation in research by women and minority students; 4) to provide summer interns with the career skills they will need to succeed in academic medicine. In addition to their research experience, students will attend a didactic training series on: lab safety, responsible conduct of research, HIPPA, writing abstracts and presenting research results (oral and poster presentations). At the end of the summer, students will give an oral presentation at the Summer Research Symposium; they will also be supported to present their data at national or regional meetings as well. We will work to recruit at least 20% underrepresented minority participants, reflecting the demographics of the LSU medical school class. In order to determine the impact the program has on individual participants, summer interns will complete Goals Attainment Scales (GAS) as well as Research Self Efficacy (RSE) surveys. GAS has been shown to be a valuable and flexible technique for the evaluation of summer research training programs. RSE is a major predictor of career choice and performance. We will also conduct formative and summative evaluations concerning the entire program, in order to determine what programmatic changes may be needed and to tailor the program to better meet the needs of the students. Lastly, working with the Office of Student Affairs, we will implement a career tracking system which will measure the long-term impact of their summer experience on career choices and research participation, thus quantifying the long-term impact of this program. This program will help to create the next generation of physician researchers who are prepared to address the underlying causes of and treatment for some of the most common, chronic, and costly diseases affecting people in this country. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: We propose an innovative, short-term research training program for medical students in Pennington Biomedical Research Center clinical trials and research labs. The LSU-NIDDK Medical Student Research Program is designed to cultivate students' interest in research careers by having them work on research projects on obesity, diabetes and metabolic diseases. This program will help to create the next generation of physician researchers who are prepared to conduct the translational research that quickly transforms basic science discoveries into new clinical therapies.